A couple of weeks ago, while taking a little tour of Provence, I found myself in Arles, once a great Mediterranean port but today a small town with some spectacular Roman ruins, famous for being the location where Vincent Van Gogh painted many of his most famous works, as well as being the place where he cut off his left ear.
In one of the town squares, I found a fairly ordinary and old looking memorial to the events of the second world war.
However, there was a very new plaque on it. Let’s get a closer look.
This is quite intriguing. Unless the servicemen in question did something extremely famous, it is unusual to find a memorial to one or two specific men. (At least, it is outside graveyards). While the sacrifice of every soldier or airman who died is worthy of commemoration and remembrance, the numbers who died were so great that it is not possible. So why these two? Were Lieutenants Tippett and McConnell the only Americans to die in Arles in the war? If not, what did they do to merit this memorial? And why was this plaque not erected until almost 60 years after the action in question? Were more details as to what happened in the war only found out recently? Had some historian who knew what they did long campaigned for such commemoration. One senses that there is an interesting story there, either about the actions of the men themselves, or at least about how the plaque came to be erected. I googled for their names on the internet but found nothing. I am sure that if I wrote to the mayor of Arles to ask, I would receive a letter back telling me the answer. However right now I don’t know anything. Still, if any readers of this site know anything, I would be interested to hear it.
And it is worth noting that the citizens of at least one French town felt the need to erect another memorial to the American sacrifices made in 1944 in liberating France as recently as last year. Not everyone forgets.
It’s nice to see this item on samizdata, balancing the missing-US-flag story from northern France a few weeks back.
Did the dissident frogman ever find out what was going on with that previous item, by the way?
Dissident Frogman’s final report
Yes, he did.
Michael,
In addition to the mayor (a famous French socialist), you could also contact an Anciens Combattants (veterans) association >>> you might converse with actual survivors who saw witnessed what happened in 1944.
It’s just too bad you didn’t mention more about this 2000-year old city (younger than Marseilles) which was successively Celto-Ligurian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Sarrasine, Occitan & French.
Michael,
Try this:
http://www.pointvista.com/WW2GliderPilots/southern_france.htm >>> page still under construction).
The 2 US pilots died the very day when the allies landed in Provence (from Corsica ?) >>> operation Dragoon (14 August 1944). The thing is that the landing took place near Saint-Tropez, thats is far eastward from Arles (perhaps 150 or 200 km). But air attacks may have occurred along the Provençal coast and at any place where German armies were positioned.
Veteran association for “Bouches-du-Rhône” = French département n° 13 >>> address below:
Union Fédérale des ACVG des Bouches-du-Rhône
Président Francis Agostini
Villa Philipp Inn
122, chemin de Falet
13.200 Arles
France.
Marseilles is a city I would very much like to visit. I believe, like Arles, it was Greek and a number of things and is a considerably older city than Paris.
How far apart are Arles and Marseilles?
Mark,
Marseilles (2600 yo) is 50km away from Arles (2000 yo, & even older if you count the Celto-Ligurian episode).
A part from the road linking Arles to Marseilles is not highway, but a speedway crossing the Camargue. The landscape is surreal: the stones thrown from the skies onto the Rhône river by Hercules are living side by side with 70s oil refineries. A must for errieness-lovers, believe me. Go also the improbable Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône (Rhône mouth), where king Saint-Louis left to fight the “Islamofascists” of the time…
Marseilles was Celto-Ligurian, then Greek (Massalia), then Roman (Massilia).
It was founded by Phoceans (a Greek tribe from Asia Minor) & is commonly referred as Phocea.
Fascinating US (old) influence is to be found in Marseilles, which was also one of the rarest French provincial cities to have both a US & a Soviet consulate.
Go there. Urgently. And take care. Marseilles is not haunted by smart people only.
Last tip: don’t dress like a tourist. Suit & tie will do.
I went to Marseilles immediately after going to Arles. I found it a very interesting place. It didn’t feel especially dangerous to me, although it was a little rough in places. I wrote about the trip on my own blog while it was occurring. You can read what I had to say towards the bottom of thisarchive page and the top of this one.
I simply got the train from Arles to Marseilles, so I didn’t get the whole Camargue experience, unfortunately.
Note One of the links in this comment was broken, but I have now fixed it.
Michael,
Thanx for your links.
I couldn’t access the 1st one, but I liked the 2nd.
Many Californians (& other US people) live or spend more or less time in Provence; just as their predecessors used to did in the early XXth century. Almost every nationality can be find in Marseilles alone, not to mention some cities like Aix, Avignon, Arles, Toulon, Nice etc. The US navy have been making frequent stops in Marseilles for decades.
The reason why you found it easy to get rooms in Avignon might be caused by the arts festival cancellation due to striking artists fighting against the MEDEF (a union for business bosses) and its will to “reform” the specific dole system for artists working on a temporary -yet constantly renewed- basis. The official arts festival was cancelled (the “in”), but the “off” (unofficial) was still working.
Yep the destiny of Arles could have been different, and it was an Empire capital during late antiquity.
I can’t remember the title, but there was a book by Joseph Roth (a journalist) of Austria (early XXth) about his trips in Arles, Avignon, Nîmes etc. I’m sure the English version is available if you can’t read neither German nor French.
The history of the region westward & eastward from the Rhône delta is fascinating. Almost all ancient Empires & civilisations have confluenced around there: Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Phenicians, Arabs, Franks, Wisigoths, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Bulgarians, Egyptians etc. All heresies that devastated Europe were found or thrived 200 km away from the delta, which is also the symbolic frontier between Hispania & Italia (I mean cultural aspects). Yet the personality of the area is (was) strongly Occitan (Provençal & Languedocian).
There would be too much to speak about.
Just one legend is worth being heard of. Provence was the first (Greeko-Romano-)Gallic region to be christianised with the arrival of the actual Jesus (after 33 !!!) on a boat, accompanied by Maria Magdalena & Sarah, an Egyptian servant, better known as the Black Virgin, whom the today Gypsies are worshipping in Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer after due pilgrimage. The French royals were said to descend directly from Jesus (a clandestine immigrant, a “sans-papiers” of the time), hence the divine onction & the eventual absolute power…
More legends are running in the moutains of Occitany (southern France): the Holy Grail for instance (looked for by Nazis during WW2).
Yes Europe is a weird, weird place…
Actually I don’t think it is all that rare. I’ve read about many monuments to downed Allied pilots, often at the crash site. Some are old, but some are due to recent excavations in which remains were found.
There are also more than a few American and British pilots buried in well kept (to this day) graves in small French (and other) towns.
If you are a regular reader of Aeroplance and FlyPast, you see a fair number of pictures and stories on these sorts of things.
There are many in Europe who have not forgotten.
There was still a lot going on in Avignon. The town was full of people, and there was lots of street theatre, lots of music, and of course lots of eating and drinking. I couldn’t walk more than a couple of blocks without someone handing me a flyer advertising some performance or other. It was all good fun, although it was very hot. (Of course, one responds to this by doing more drinking).
Just out of interest, in English an unofficial festival going on alongside an official festival is often called a “fringe festival”. For instance, people will talk about the “Edinburgh fringe” or similar. (At least, they do in British and Australian English. I don’t know if the Americans also use the term).
I’m glad Kodiak mentioned Nimes, albeit in passing, a town I’ve passed through several times on the TGV to Montpellier and keep meaning to revisit specifically to photograph its beautiful architecture. It’s a treasure-trove, though the most impressive place I know is a small town not far away called Orange, north of Avignon: it’s attractive in its own right, but on the edge of the town centre the traveller will discover a huge, magnificent, strikingly well preserved Roman ampitheatre that looks as if it might have been built 100 years ago rather than 1500 or more. An uplifting sight that brings history to life.
Michael,
Judging by the quantity of broadcast and print journalism given over to WW2 in recent years I would not be surprised if the practise of honouring the dead of WW2 has been gathering momentum. Recently excavated remains asidse, I would imagine that the greater part of the reason is that the warriors are fading from our presence and with them their knowledge of the deeds done to give us our liberty. The desire to capture that knowledge in stone is noble and good, and the fact that you, Michael, were moved to post this piece shows that it works.
Operational derring-do is not always the motive for these memorials, though. The poignancy of losses is, in itself, sometimes enough to move the living to act. Close to my father’s home at Netherfield, Sussex a fine memorial has been raised privately by a Polish gentleman whose friends died on that spot in a Wellington bomber whilst still doing Operational Training. Not all memorials are in stone, either. In 1999 my father published his own memoir of his tour with 75 Squadron RNZAF to commemorate the loss of over 100 of his colleagues during the few months he was on station in 1944. He calculates that with book sales and library lendings at least thirty-thousand people have taken something from it.
Returning to the Arles memorial, it isn’t only the airmen’s sacrifice that is remembered but also the respect and gratitude of the people of Arles. Efforts will have been made to contact the relatives of the two Lieutenants in America for the commemoration ceremony. I hope some were able to attend. They will have been doing so at a time when the French and Americans were, in other ways, in deep dispute. So the value of these gestures in stone are truly pacific.
I think Guessedworker has made some fine observations on the matter.
Thanx for the precision about “fringe festival”. I take this opportunity to make a digression back to the “courriel” story (the French word for “e-mail”) recently examplified by David Carr (21 July 2003). The Dissident Frogman & I diverged greatly on how to consider creation of new words as opposed to franglais (Frenglish): “mercatique” vs “marketing”, “balladeur” vs “walkman”, “courriel” vs “e-mail” etc. I mentioned the existence of “tenniswoman”, a French (!) word the English equivalent of which, for aught I know, should be “female tennis player”… It’s the same thing with “in” & “off” as applied to festivals or performing arts in general, in the French language at least. “Le in” means “THE fetival” or “the festival as such” or “the very festival” or “the official festival”, whereas “le off” means “the fringe festival”. I don’t know if in other English-speaking areas different from the UK & Australia “in” & “off” are or can be used in the French acceptation. If they aren’t or can’t, then “in” & “off” may be categorised as elements of the “tenniswoman” set (in French): English phenotypes following a non-English pattern according to Anglophones, regular English imports according to Francophones.
Although the official Avignon festival was to be bankrupt due to the strike that brought about cancellation, both the State & the City of Avignon claimed they would intervene financially to make sure the next edition will take place in 2004. What an irony… They (& the local business community) did at last understand that “lazy” & “leftist” performers on strike represent a huge sales turnover thanx to the touristical & afficionado attendance. Better too late than never…
Yes Nîmes is interesting. In addtion to classical historical points of interests, the local themselves are worth a closer look. Especially if you can speak French. You’ll inevitably notice something more than a mere southern accent surfacing up to your ears: it’s a the remainings of an ancient language that won’t die, Occitan (a cousin of French & Catalan). If you push your trip a little bit northwards up to the next moutains, the Cévennes, you’ll see that the local version of Occitan was associated with the same religion that characterised the Netherlands or the Republic of Geneva: protestantism. The landscape are breathtaking and change brutally when you reach the high-perched arid plateaux called Causses, the largest French desert ripped by canyons (“gorges” = “throats”). Many other geological spectacular curiosities are to be found if you’re not afraid to drive on roads girt with agonising precipices.
The relation Southern French from the Mediterranean belt entertain with things US is interesting & might not necessarily conform to the traditional cliché about French people. History & trade may account for that. I suspect that human geography & sociology could also play a role, at least undirectly. Marseilles, for instance, is not a typical French city with its medieval heart, XVIIth faubourgs & XXth banlieue (suburbs). Marseilles is polynuclear, as many US cities, & there’s no real downtown. The garland of medium-sized cities across the Rhône delta (Béziers, Sète, Montpellier, Nîmes, Avignon, Orange, Arles, Marseilles, Aix, Toulon) or along the Riviera (Nice, Cannes, Grasse, Monaco, Menton) are like Ancient Decapolis or, all other things being equal, following the same pattern as the Northeastern coast of the US. Also the urbanisation was sudden & steadily powerful (according to European criteria) from the 60s on (Montpellier, Cannes, around the lake of Berre, Sophia-Antipolis…). The mentalities towards family types, divorce, sex, national & international immigration, political attitudes, consumerism, economic performance, have changed enormously & constantly before the same trend could apply to the rest of the territory (with the notable exception of Paris). There was also the 1944 landing in Provence that is part of the modern history of this very old region.
The real difference with the US (apart from Frenchness, Mediterraneanity & Europeanhood) is the massive role played by the State (Marseilles was a fully administrated city until lately) along with a dynamic private sector. Hence some contrasting economical figures: highest education level AND highest unemployment rate, high tax rate AND high State benefits…
Another difference is the populist extreme right replacing traditional communism in Languedoc & Western Provence & replacing classical right in Eastern Provence (Riviera). The shift is clear-cut (from 1983 on) & alarming. It is not clear whether the extreme right would quit its traditional good disposition towards the US (privatisation, gross populism, political clownerie to avoid real issues…) and follow a new pattern consisting in firmly opposing the US (chauvinism, lightly-dissimulated antiSemitism & Arab countries courting).
The main cities already (once or still) occupied by the National Front (extreme right) are the following ones: Orange, Marignane (Marseilles airport), Toulon (French navy), Vitrolles (vigorous trading area around the lake of Berre), Nice (a crypto-fascist city cancerised with Italian & Russian maffia & highly corrupted).
Now you know.
For the sake of your ancestors who died there fighting against the Nazis, forget for a moment Van Gogh as you trip around over there, and bear in mind that the ones you call lefties or leftists may also be the ones who put plaques for all to remember.
Seems like my Classical Civ instructor – a Brit whom we lost to a tragic stroke in ’83 – claimed that Marseilles was a Greek colony originally named “Massalia.” Since Greek colonization was somewhat subject to preemption by later powers like Carthage and Rome, that pretty much dates it sometime BC – maybe 2400-2200 BC?
Very nice to see that plaque. I’ve felt rather bad for the many French who have taken no part at all in the US bashing that goes on over there. Many French and US families exchange cards, visits, etc. stemming from a US serviceman’s visit in WWII.
Hopefully, word will go out among the various veteran’s groups, if it hasn’t already, and they will resume their visits. Some of the towns depend very heavily on tourism and it’s way down. These towns shouldn’t be made to pay for their idiotic leaders.
Some big dates about Marseille, Marseilho, Lacydon, Phocée, Massilia, Massalia, Marseilles, Marsiglia, Marsella:
1. Before VIth century BC: the city was Ligurian.
2. VIth BC: arrival of Phoceans from Asia Minor. Gyptis, a Ligurian princess, daughter of Nann, king of Ligurians, finally married Protis, a Phocean landing on Lacydon (the ancient name of Vieux-Port, Old-Harbour = heart of Marseilles).
3. IVth-IIIrd BC: arrival of Northern Celts who mix with Ligurians (the Phoceans being considered true Massaliots = inhabitants of Massalia, a Greek name for the city around the Lacydon) & forming a people called Celto-Ligurians or Salyans.
4. 181-154 BC: Salyans (Celto-Ligurians) & Massaliots (former Phoceans) don’t get along anymore. Massaliots are urging Rome for succour.
5. 125-121 BC: Rome comes to Massalia & its neighbourhood & destroys a Salyan fortress called Entremont in modern French.
6. 122 BC: Aix (Aquae Sextiae = the baths/waters of Sextius) is founded. The Provincia Romana (future Provence) is founded: it’s the first transalpine Roman region. Via Domitia (a paved road) is built to link Italia to Hispania via Provincia Romana. Narbonne is founded in 118 BC & Provincia Romana will be called Provincia Narbonensis (Narbonnaise in modern French) until Barbaric Invasions.
7. ~ 250 AD: the Narbonnaise is divided in Viennoise (in the future: Italic & Holly Empire influence) eastwards from Rhône (Vienne = Vienna = a city not far away from Lyons) and in Narbonnaise stricto sensu (in the future: Hispanian & Wisigothic & Sarracenic influence), westwards from Rhône river.
8. 381 AD: The Viennoise province is dismantled. Apparition of Narbonnaise Seconde.
9. IVth & Vth AD: christianisation.
10. 419-478: Wisigoths occupying south of Durance river, Burgunds occupying north.
11. 591: first plague in Marseilles.
12. 739: Arab occupation, then Frankish “reconquista” (Carolingians).
13. 855: creation of the 1st kingdom of Provence.
(…)
14. 1720: Black Plague.
(…)
15. 1789: Revolutionaries renamed Marseilles “No Name City” for having fueled a federalist rebellion. Just as Lyons was renamed “Enfranchised City” & sentenced to full destruction due to collaboration with royalty.
(…)
16. 1943: destructions caused by Germans.
17. 1944: liberation by the Allies.
(…)
******
Chris Josephson,
You can be USophile & entertain the remembrance of the liberation AND be fiercely opposing the Bushist conception of unilateralism. That’s a subtlety many Frenchmen bother to make: I’m not too sure the reverse could be demonstrated with “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” & other populist graciousities…
‘Fraid I can’t shed any light on the two Lts., but I’m gratified to see that there’s some sanity left in Europe. I was suspicious at first that the plaque was hurriedly erected to attempt to regain some of the tourist trade that was reportedly lost due to the current imbroglio, but see that it was placed there in April 2002. I’m also happy to see this (apparently) European web site that exhibits a different attitude toward the US than that which is reported here. I have fond memories of Europe from my military service there as well as my airline career. I was a young USAF pilot in ’63 at Greenham Common Air Base when President Kennedy was assassinated, and I have vivid memories of the kindness of all with whom I came in contact in the aftermath. I also was treated very courteously by Europeans during my subsequent career as a TWA pilot, and have been very disappointed at the reports of the attitudes of a certain proportion of the populace since 9/11, especially during the current Iraq operation, which in my opinion was completely necessary and long overdue. Kudos especially to PM Tony Blair (with whom I am in total disagreement politically, so far as I can tell), whose principles will probably cost him his job.
Michael — when Americans talk about “the fringe” they are usually referring to a section of the population which holds extreme beliefs, or perhaps to mean the outer edge of an issue. For example, “the fringe element” in reference to people who puke on sidewalks or strip naked in public to make a point. Using “fringe festival” as you do is a somewhat more specific application of the word than we use here. In British English I would say that “fringe” is used to mean “not officially sanctioned”; in American English I would say it is used to mean “not sanctioned by the majority.”
I wonder if there may be an economic reason behind this? Fewer Americans are visiting France. Tourism is a big industry and this is hurting them in the pocketbook. My own Aunt and Uncle canceled a trip to France because of the perception that they “hate Americans there.” Steven Den Beste has an interesting post on the subject. Puting up such a plaque might make the local population seem less anti-American. Just a thought.
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/08/Courtesan.shtml
Adam,
Things don’t change that much in France. Don’t be so self-centered: some French may even not know that the US exists…
US haters are the same (3%). US lovers too (3%).
French people thinking Bush is an asshole & remembering WW2 are 94%.
Unitedstatish people cancel trips to France. Fine. No big deal… France is the first worldwide tourist (people & business alike) destination. We really don’t care that paranoid or FoxNews-brainwashed people cancel. It isn’t even worth mentioning . Really.
The plaque was put there a little over a year ago, when French/American relations were perhaps getting worse, but they had rather further to go before they got really bad. I don’t think there was anything cynical about it. The people of Arles erected the plaque because they wanted to honour two Americans who died bravely during the liberation of France. This was a fine thing for them to do.
Michael,
It’s great to read -at last!- some commonsense about the French.
It goes without saying that you are right: the people whot put up the plaque were not obsessed by Bush, Chirac, Iraq or the Simpsons. They just did something they found compliant with their personal beliefs & that’s perfect like that.
I hope such people can be be found too on the other side of the Atlantic…
Kodiak, did you even bother to think about what I said or read the article I mentioned ? Or was your first response to vomit up an insult? Sad, really.
Sorry: who was talking to me in the post above?
It’s been a fantastic summer. I wish these two guys
could have been drinking a cool beer with us here this year.
I ‘spose, in a way, it’s enough we’re still thinking about them. They were part of the best team we ever produced…… I think that most French folks still appreciate that.
Perhaps the best we we can remember them is to ensure that nothing that crazy ever happens again.